WH Partners

Corporate and M&A, Commercial Contracts, Corporate Finance, Gaming and Gambling, IPR Licensing, Insolvency and Restructuring

Co-Founder & Managing Partner and Head of Corporate/M&A

James is a versatile lawyer who predominantly advises organisations operating, invested, investing or with exposure to the Gaming & Gambling, Sports, Real Estate and Hospitality & Leisure industries.

His main areas of expertise are M&A, corporate finance, company law, gambling regulation, devising strategic commercial solutions within a regulated environment, IPR licencing, sponsorship, brand development and protection. James also has experience of advising business owners and senior executives on their estate planning and succession, together with WH Partners’ private client and tax teams.

In 2012 James formed a partnership with Olga Finkel to create WH Partners. Before that, James held the positions of Chief of Regulatory and Corporate Affairs, and General Counsel respectively for a leading European online gambling operator, prior to which he worked as a solicitor in the corporate & commercial team of a top 50 law firm in London.

For several years James lectured gaming law at the University of Malta before passing the baton to another member of WH Partners’ gaming team. He has spoken extensively on the regulation of gambling, and on M&A in the gambling industry at conferences worldwide, and he has authored several articles, and contributed chapters to publications including The Gaming Law Review (pub. by Mary Ann Liebert Inc), and The Mergers and Acquisitions Review (pub. by Law Business Research Ltd).

English, Italian, French, Maltese

James was admitted to the Bar in Malta in 2004 and to the Roll of Solicitors of England and Wales in 2007. He is a member of the Malta Chamber of Advocates, the Law Society of England & Wales, International Masters of Gaming Law, International Association of Gaming Attorneys, and the International Bar Association which he currently serves as an officer of the Leisure Industries Section, and chair of its Online Entertainment and Gaming Committee.

James obtained an LLM in International Business Law (with distinction) from University College London, after having been awarded a Chevening Scholarship by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2004. He holds a Doctor of Laws degree and a Bachelor of Arts in Law & Sociology from the University of Malta.